The Missing Middle: Why We Need an Institute for Social Impact Practice and Leadership

[John Onyeukwu]

The Missing Middle: Why We Need an Institute for Social Impact Practice and Leadership

The story of social development across regions is full of brilliance, innovation, and resilience. Thousands of organisations , from small community-based groups to large NGOs and social enterprises, are working tirelessly to improve lives and transform systems. And yet, many of these efforts struggle to scale, sustain impact, or demonstrate long-term value.

Why?

 Because between inspiration and impact, there is a missing middle.

This “missing middle” is not talent. It’s not passion. It’s not even financing.

It is leadership capacity, ethical clarity, and impact practice, the essential competencies that enable organisations to make decisions grounded in evidence, accountability, systems-thinking, and measurable results. It is the infrastructure that helps leaders translate big ideas into outcomes that truly transform communities.

Across the social impact ecosystem, organisations face three persistent challenges:

1️⃣ Leadership gaps in navigating complexity:

Most mission-driven leaders work in environments defined by uncertainty, political shifts, donor pressures, and rapidly evolving social needs. Many rise into leadership without structured training in values-based leadership, adaptive management, or systems stewardship.

2️⃣ Weak accountability systems:

Despite good intentions, many organisations lack mechanisms for ethical decision-making, transparent reporting, and learning loops — systems that ensure they remain accountable to the people they serve.

3️⃣ Limited capacity for evidence-based practice:

Impact requires data. Not just collection, but interpretation, integration, and learning. Too many programs operate with limited or outdated tools for monitoring, evaluation, and adaptive improvement.

This is where the Institute for Social Impact Practice and Leadership (ISIPL) steps in.

ISIPL was founded to fill this structural gap, to build a new generation of capable, ethical, and impact-focused leaders; to strengthen institutions with rigorous, context-sensitive practice models; and to drive ecosystem change across civil society, public institutions, philanthropy, and social enterprises.

The sector does not lack potential. It lacks infrastructure for impact.

Our mission is simple but ambitious: to help social impact leaders and organisations move from good intentions to great outcomes, consistently, sustainably, and at scale.

The work begins here.

www.isiplglobal.org 

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John Onyeukwu
http://www.policy.hu/onyeukwu/

 http://about.me/onyeukwu
“Let us move forward to fight poverty, to establish equity, and assure peace for the next generation.”
-- James D. Wolfensohn
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